It could probably be useful if people played in the same place, only with their laptops instead of pen & paper, or perhaps if they played live games through skype or something (which is I think what they have in mind). But I found it really cumbersome in pbp, because:

Right now, I have a fairly streamlined process when it comes to creating maps. You export the screenshot from maptools, I upload it to an one shot free image-hosting thing, and the map is available like this, doners.

Instead, in Roll20, you have to log in every time to their map thingy. Which compared to just clicking a .jpg link, seems to take ages. It might be a small delay, but it is an annoying delay when you are used in not having it and I found myself actually discouraged from clicking my own map, bored to go through the mini-login process.

Another gripe is that I often like to check the map from mobile devices. Either because I am curious to see what a player did (when they bother to post, grumble) and to begin thinking what to post in my turn even if I am not home, or in order to quickly point out that an action is invalid so that the player might correct it and not have the day go to waste. With Roll20 that is of course (or was when I tried it) impossible.

Another gripe, is that I had a pretty huge map, but it always insisted on starting my view (or anyone's) on the top left corner. I hope they fixed that by now. (aka, after the login, you had to zoom/pan around in order to actually see your character, every time)

And finally another gripe was that it has no lighting system like maptools has which saps your ability to make sexy dark places slowly being revealed by torch light without actually having to count squares yourself to see if something ought to be visible or not. (again, at least when I tied it).

I'll probably be using it a lot more in the future. They mentioned that making it work with mobile devices is a priority, so once I can use it on my Galaxy Tab then I can use it for gaming anywhere really. I love the integration they have with Google+ and how you can use it with Hangouts. I think the fog of war thing is being looked at as well though I can't say for sure.

It could probably be useful if people played in the same place, only with their laptops instead of pen & paper, or perhaps if they played live games through skype or something (which is I think what they have in mind). But I found it really cumbersome in pbp, because:

Right now, I have a fairly streamlined process when it comes to creating maps. You export the screenshot from maptools, I upload it to an one shot free image-hosting thing, and the map is available like this, doners.

Instead, in Roll20, you have to log in every time to their map thingy. Which compared to just clicking a .jpg link, seems to take ages. It might be a small delay, but it is an annoying delay when you are used in not having it and I found myself actually discouraged from clicking my own map, bored to go through the mini-login process.

Another gripe is that I often like to check the map from mobile devices. Either because I am curious to see what a player did (when they bother to post, grumble) and to begin thinking what to post in my turn even if I am not home, or in order to quickly point out that an action is invalid so that the player might correct it and not have the day go to waste. With Roll20 that is of course (or was when I tried it) impossible.

Another gripe, is that I had a pretty huge map, but it always insisted on starting my view (or anyone's) on the top left corner. I hope they fixed that by now. (aka, after the login, you had to zoom/pan around in order to actually see your character, every time)

And finally another gripe was that it has no lighting system like maptools has which saps your ability to make sexy dark places slowly being revealed by torch light without actually having to count squares yourself to see if something ought to be visible or not. (again, at least when I tied it).

Yup... They fail as a PbP mapping tool. Good thing that is not what they are trying to build. You comment is the equivalent of saying "I hate map tools because they don't have online chat capabilities". Try evaluating the site for what it was actually intended...

The site is built to facilitate live online play, and in that they have made an excellent tart. Perfect? No way, as I stated in my post. But with such a great start, and a very responsive dev group, I am confident they will quickly iron out the bugs.

Does it have any value at all for me on the Weave? Not yet, but we'll see how it grows...

I use d20Pro for live gaming -- I use HeroLab for creating the characters for Pathfinder (the game I mostly DM) and the fact you can import the characters into d20Pro is a bargain.

We actually use a projector connected to the players' laptop and I send updates to them. They can then scale the map to look at things, and they still have the tactile sensation of moving their characters on the table (white foamboard on the top of it as the projector screen, projector hangs from the ceiling).

For live playing across the internet, we use Fantasy Grounds II as it is easier for players as they can quickly bring up handouts, receive personal messages from the GM, etc

Playing as a DM of a 4e game here on MW, I use ditzie and a google docs spreadsheet, as they work perfectly (and both are free, so that makes it a billy bargain), allowing the players to update the map, update nerfs / buffs / damage for when their time zone doesn't match mine.

I'm going to subscribe to roll20 as I believe any system which aims at helping gamers needs support, and hopefully they can bring the best of previous VTT's together

I own maptools, but have yet to use it as two VTT's should be enough ... OR IS IT ???

Yup... They fail as a PbP mapping tool. Good thing that is not what they are trying to build. You comment is the equivalent of saying "I hate map tools because they don't have online chat capabilities". Try evaluating the site for what it was actually intended...

Since someone asked about using in for PbP, Vaebn's post was very much justified. I, for one, am glad someone evaluated it as a PbP tool, because that is a question that interested me.

Thanks to Stormcracker for asking the question, and thanks to Vaebn for the answer.